ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran's Major General Qassem Soleimani reportedly flew to Moscow for talks with the Russian leadership on cooperation in the Middle East. "General Soleimani traveled to Moscow last night [Thursday] to discuss issues including the delivery of S-300's and further military cooperation," a senior Iranian security official told Reuters. The Kremlin told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency that Russian President Vladimir Putin's schedule does not include a meeting with the Iranian general. Russia is going ahead with its agreement to sell Tehran advanced S-300 air defense missile systems. An arms deal which began in 2007, was frozen in 2010, as part of UN sanctions leveled against Iran for its nuclear activities, and was reconsidered in 2015 following the nuclear agreement reached between Tehran and the P5+1 powers. When Major General Soleimani visited Moscow back in July 2015 he showed a map to the Russians of Syria and outlined a strategy in which a decisive Russian military intervention could turn the tables in favour of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Russia intervened late in the following September and in cooperation with Iran and the Syrian military managed to do so. Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' (IRGC) Quds Forces (which is responsible for paramilitary activities beyond Iran's borders), is an iconic figure in Iran and has been photographed numerous times during his tours in Iraq since the war against Islamic State (ISIS) began back in June 2014.
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